PGW(Gt)62(MON)

The Hill  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

329551  

215433  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Formal and informal gardens and walled garden set in informal woodland grounds and a small area of relict parkland.  

Late eighteenth century; 1800-1822; about 1904; 1967-2009  

Registered as the gardens, grounds and relict parkland of The Hill, an early nineteenth-century miniature country estate. A rare and interesting feature is the semi-circular projection of the walled kitchen garden, the line of which dates to at least 1798. The historical association of The Hill with John Wedgwood, eldest son of Josiah Wedgwood, who rented The Hill from 1831 to 1836, is of great interest. John Wedgwood was a horticulturalist of some note and was one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1804. The Hill is a substantial house (NPRN: 407212) surrounded by formal and informal gardens, a large walled garden, informal woodland and relict fragments of formerly extensive parkland. The Hill has a fine situation on the north edge of, and overlooking, Abergavenny, with the open countryside of the lower slopes of the Deri and Rholben ridges of the Sugar Loaf mountain above it. It is situated in the centre of the gardens and grounds, reached by a drive from Hill Road, to the west, through ornate Edwardian iron gates with a single-storey lodge at the entrance. Trees flank the drive. When first built The Hill would have been more isolated from the town than it is now. There has been a house on the site of The Hill since at least the eighteenth century. For much of that century it was owned by a family named Lloyd. Nothing is known about the surroundings of the house during most of the eighteenth century, although, given the size of the house, it is very probable that there was a garden and possibly a small park during the ownership of the Lloyd family. On William Lloyd’s death in 1771 the estate passed, through various bequests, to Richard and Walter Scudamore, brothers of John Scudamore of Kentchurch Court, Herefordshire. The house, however, was sold to William Morgan, at least as early as 1776, when his illegitimate son Thomas (died 1822) was born there. William and Thomas Morgan were key owners of The Hill, in terms of the development of the house and its grounds. Archival and physical evidence suggest that Thomas substantially rebuilt the existing house and its outbuildings and made substantial alterations to the grounds at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The earliest evidence for the layout of the park and garden is a survey by Henry Price of the property of Thomas Morgan, dated 1798. The plan shows that at that time some features of the present-day layout were already in existence. The property extended further south and east than at present. It included a small park, drive, small garden and, most interestingly, a walled garden with a semi-circular projection at its north end. Thomas Morgan’s early nineteenth-century changes involved the removal of field boundaries around the house, creating what was described in 1842 as ‘a rich Park-Like Paddock’, an informal garden and woodland area and the enlargement of the walled garden. The 1842 Sale Particulars state that Hill House had ‘A Walled Garden, abundantly stocked with Fruit; Lawn and Pleasure-Grounds, embracing a beautiful Grove of lofty and varied Timber, at the North Side of the Mansion, through which might be formed beautiful walks’. The 1842 Sale Particulars map and 1843 tithe map show roughly the same layout but the Sale Particulars map is more detailed, in that it shows tree planting and paths. Both show that the overall layout of gardens and grounds has remained substantially intact since that time, although the gardens were reworked in about 1904 and the park to the east and south has been considerably reduced. After Thomas Morgan’s death in 1822 The Hill had a number of owners through the nineteenth century and for much of the time the property was rented out. The next owner was Philip Jones, who let the property. Between 1829 and 1835 or 1836 it was occupied by John Wedgwood and after him William Morgan, a banker, who occupied it from soon after 1836 until at least 1851. The gardens and grounds shown on the 1842 and 1843 maps and described in the Sale Particulars of 1842 would most probably have been in existence when John Wedgwood and his family lived here. As he was renting the property, and was here for only a short time, it is unlikely that John made any major changes. However, his horticultural enthusiasm and expertise is well documented. Of exceptional historical interest is the fact that his gardening diary, now kept at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library in London, covers the period when John lived at The Hill. The next major phase of development to both house and grounds took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, under the ownership of Edward Pritchard Martin, JP (1844 – 1910). Martin, who had had a distinguished career in mining and engineering and had been the general manager of the Blaenavon ironworks, bought The Hill and its wider estate in 1901, on his retirement. Edward Pritchard Martin’s remodelling campaign of about 1904 included extensive alterations to the park and garden, including the terrace and steps to the front of the house. The main sources of information on these changes are the 1916 Sale Particulars and the 1920 Ordnance Survey map. The lodge, which is in the same style as the side wings added to the house, was built at the same time. The present gardens and grounds can be divided into four main areas: the formal and informal garden to the south of the house; the informal and woodland areas; the walled garden and the relict parkland. To the south of the house is a large terrace with an informally planted sloping lawn below. The terrace is bounded on the south by a low stone parapet wall and balustrade. The balustrade, dating to about 1904, is punctuated by square piers and at either end are angled corner projections. In the middle are wide stone steps (also about 1904) in two flights, leading down to a wide gravel path running straight down the slope. A Wellingtonia stands at the east end of the lawn. This tree was probably one of a pair, planted in about 1904 each side of the central axis path running down the lawn from the main house entrance. The position of the second tree, now missing, is shown on the 1920 Ordnance Survey map. To the north of the drive and the house are the informal and woodland areas and the walled garden. The informal areas of garden to the sides and north of the house are complex in layout and have been interrupted and in places destroyed by subsequent development. The woodland occupies the larger area and is wrapped around the north, east and west sides of the walled garden at the centre. The north end of the grounds is occupied by mixed deciduous woodland. The two large beech in the north-west corner and another one on the north boundary are survivors of an earlier planting scheme. In places there is an understorey of laurel, holly and yew. Informal, unsurfaced paths, run through the wood. At the core of the gardens, on the south-facing slope above and to the north of the house, is a large walled garden. This appears always to have been used for both ornamental and kitchen garden purposes. It is an unusual shape, being trapezoidal, with a semi-circular projection in the middle of the north side. The walls are brick on the inside and stone outside. In the early 1990s this part of the garden underwent a radical restoration, part of which entailed the complete rebuilding of the east wall and the repair of the others. The interior layout of the walled garden dates only to the period after 1995, when Coleg Gwent took over The Hill. The remaining parkland area lies mainly below the house and ornamental garden, at the south end of the site. It is an area of open, mown grassland dotted with trees of varying age. Significant View: From the house front and garden terrace overlooking Abergavenny. Sources: Cadw, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales PGW(Gt)62(MON)